In fiber-optic lightwave telecommunication transmission systems there is the desire for system versatility that makes possible serving a variety of telecommunications transmission architectures such as add/drop multiplex, bidirectional line switched ring (BLSR), and terminal configurations. In known lightwave transmission systems, however, an architectures' benefits and optimal functions are generally specific to one of the three different architectures.
Lightwave transmission system networks, as a rule, are complex and must work in a variety of configurations. Because of interface limitations, lightwave transmission system architectures are often designed to be optimized for one particular configuration and are less effective in other configurations. This means, for example, that the architecture a lightwave transmission product employs may be most efficient in an add/drop multiplex configuration, but highly inefficient in both BLSR and terminal configurations. The limitation of transmission products not being adaptable to different architectures makes designing scalable transmission products difficult. This is because at various points in a network there may be all the different types of configurations. A shortcoming, therefore, results where the system operates inefficiently for the configuration with which it interfaces.